Tariq Parvez President Advisory Board, NIOC: Former Director General Federal Investigation Agency
Zahid Hussain Member NIOC AB: Eminent journalist particularly specializing in countering terrorism
Samina Ahmed Member NIOC AB: Senior Adviser Asia and Project Director, South Asia for the International Crisis Group
Zubair Habib Chairman CPLC Karachi, Member NIOC AB: For community outreach.
Jawaid Akhtar QPM Member NIOC AB: Police Officer. retired as the Deputy Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police
Fasi Zaka Member NIOC AB: Communications expert. To steer the ADVISORY BOARD advocacy campaign.
Tariq Khosa Director
Muhammad Amir Rana Secretary
Muhammad Ali Nekokara Deputy Director
Hassan Sardar NIOC DIRECTORATE Admin & Finance Manager
Ammar Hussain Jaffri Communication Strategist
Kashif Akram Noon CONSULTANTS Lead Researcher
2 Minutes of the NIOC’s 10th AB meeting
HE 10th NIOC Advisory Board meeting was held on Friday, 07 August 2020, at 12 pm, virtually through a video link. NIOC President Tariq Parvez could not participate due to some pressing family commitment. Similarly, AB member Fasi Zaka was unwell and could not link up.
The following AB members, consultants and NIOC directorate staff participated: Zahid Hussain, Samina Ahmed, Zubair Habib, Jawaid Akhtar, Ammar Jaffri, Kashif Noon, Amir Rana, Ali Nekokara, Hassan Sardar.
The meeting highlights are listed below:
Director NIOC Tariq Khosa informed the board members that “Advocacy for Police Reforms” roundtables and webinars had been completed in collaboration with the USIP Project. The project team will compile the report.
The second draft of the “National Strategy on Organized Crime” was discussed in detail. Consultant Kashif Noon will come up with the third draft in a week's time and that would be shared with the AB members.
Policy brief on “Cybercrime: a new frontier of organized crime” was issued during the first week of August and shared with all the stakeholders after peer review by the FIA.
It was decided that instead of roundtables and webinars consisting of a number of panelists, NIOC would undertake interviews on relevant topics with professionals. Director Tariq Khosa, AB member Samina Ahmed and Secretary NIOC Amir Rana will conduct virtual interviews during August and September this year.
Kashif Noon shared the first chapter on “Uzair Baloch: OC Don of Karachi” and shared the outline of five chapters to be written by him. This would be an important case study of the nexus of organized crime with politics.
Director NIOC would explore further how to engage with and establish a national network of experts dealing with OC.
Ammar Jaffri will organize first engagement with the community and NGOs to sensitize them about the threats of OC to the society at large.
3 Waiting for the whitelisting
By Muhammad Amir Rana
AKISTAN is trying hard to avoid being placed on the Financial Action Task Force’s blacklist. From the outset, state institutions deemed FATF compliance a punitive political tool and responded accordingly. But with growing pressure, the government has been gradually addressing deficiencies in its counter terror financing (CTF) regime. The process may take long, but it should not come at the cost of civil liberties.
The FATF Council of Ministers is expected to meet in Miami on Aug 15. Ministers will most probably meet virtually, and may take up Pakistan’s compliance report. According to media reports, Pakistan would have had to submit its report by Aug 6. The good news is that Pakistan has completed its long pending legislative work. The lower and upper houses of parliament unanimously approved the United Nations Security Council Amendment Bill and the Anti Terrorism Act Amendment Bill to fulfil FATF requirements. The Mutual Legal Assistance (Criminal Matters) Bill was also passed after accommodating opposition parties’ concerns. After these legislative moves, Pakistan is expecting to receive some relief from the FATF.
Apart from the passage of CTF laws, the anti terrorism courts have expedited proceedings of terror financing cases. For instance, Gujranwala’s ATC handed down 16 year imprisonment each to five Al Qaeda militants for financing terrorism and keeping explosives. The cell was also involved in financing terrorist operations of Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent.
Separately, ATCs have indicted Jamaatud Dawa chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, his brother in law Hafiz Abdul Rehman Makki, and three other JuD leaders on charges of terror financing. The Punjab Counter Terrorism Department had registered some 23 FIRs against Hafiz Saeed and JuD’s other leaders in police stations in Lahore, Gujranwala, Multan, Faisalabad, Sahiwal and Sargodha in 2019. The CTD accused them of using the properties of religious seminaries and mosques for terror financing.
The confidence of the federal ministers suggests that the government has achieved some major milestones and Pakistan may be removed from the FATF’s grey list. In June, Interior Minister Ijaz Shah claimed that Pakistan had met most of the conditions set by the FATF and that his ministry had frozen 976 movable and immovable properties of proscribed outfits, besides bringing several schools, colleges, hospitals, dispensaries, ambulances, etc of the proscribed organisations under government control.
These are promising developments. But Pakistan’s terror financing challenge should not be confined only to FATF compliance. Pakistan has no option but to continue its efforts to curb both terrorism and terror financing, irrespective of the FATF’s listing. For one, as the risk of terror financing increases, the FATF’s jurisdiction will also get tougher, not only for Pakistan but for all states that have high vulnerabilities.
4 Pakistan’s concerns regarding the use of the FATF as a political tool carries some weight. Last year, China had disapproved its politicisation, as several foreign countries could be pursuing a political agenda against Pakistan. There was a perception in Islamabad that FATF compliance had replaced the mantra of ‘do more’. However, in the absence of the politicisation factor, Pakistan will have to develop a comprehensive CTF regime based on three factors: threat, vulnerability and consequences. For this purpose, the FATF recommends an establishment of authority or mechanism to coordinate actions to assess risk.
The Mutual Legal Assistance (Criminal Matters) Bill endorses the establishment of a central authority comprising the secretaries of the interior, law and justice, and, foreign affairs ministries; the home secretaries of all four provinces; with the interior secretary as its convener. This is a small forum and FATF guidelines suggest a broader body for the purpose to maintain an up to date assessment of terror financing risks, which can include the prosecution authority, non profit organisations’ supervisory authority, tax and revenue authority, real estate registry, etc.
This is important as a wider body can assess the terror financing threat more comprehensively. Though 14 key institutions, including the Financial Monitoring Unit and the National Counter Terrorism Authority, collaborate in developing strategic analyses in compliance with the FATF’s recommendations, the constitutional decision making authority proposed in the bill needs to be expanded, including civil society or local watchdogs on CTF. The FATF may come up with its observations over the law.
However, the FATF is itself a watchdog, and some legal, political and human rights issues may not fall in its jurisdiction. Parliament and civil society have to be vigilant about these aspects. Pakistan has a history of misusing security related laws to target politicians and civil society activities. Much of the security related legislation endorsed by parliament — including the Protection of Pakistan Act (PPA), 2014, and Fair Trial Act, 2013 — empowered the law enforcement agencies, while many of these laws were criticised for violating the human rights legal framework. The LEAs remain eager for ever more extensive legal powers.
Despite nearly two dozen amendments to the Anti Terrorism Act, 1997, to date, and changes in FTA 2013 and PPA 2014, the last resort was the establishment of military courts for speedy trials of terrorism cases. However, none of these legal measures have addressed the high acquittal rate in terrorism related cases, which remains a matter of serious concern.
The opposition parties in parliament have rightly pointed out the possible misuse of these laws. Though parliamentary oversight has been included as a provision in the law, it cannot guarantee that the government will not misuse it or confuse CTF with money laundering. Parliament has shown serious concerns that the CTF laws could be misused against civil society and political parties.
The exit from the FATF’s grey list is the utmost desire of any concerned citizen in the best interest of the country, including its security, economy and international image. But efforts to get off the list should only target terrorists and their sources of revenue.
Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2020
5 North Macedonia police find 148 migrants, including 81 Pakistanis, in trucks
Pakistani men at the No Borders camp at the port of Mytilene, Lesbos island on April 7, 2016 – Jodi Hilton/File
OLICE in North Macedonia say they have discovered 148 migrants crammed into trucks in two separate operations in central and northern parts of the country, and have arrested two men on suspicion of trafficking migrants.
Police said their patrol stopped a truck and accompanying passenger car near the town of Demir Kapija, about 110 kilometres south of the capital Skopje, on Wednesday. They, found 103 migrants, including 29 children, packed into the truck. The majority — 81 people — were from Pakistan, while 10 were from Afghanistan, eight from India, two from Egypt and one each from Iran and Syria. Two men from North Macedonia were arrested as suspected smugglers.
The migrants were transferred to a migrant shelter in the southern border town of Gevgelija pending deportation to Greece, where they are believed to have crossed into North Macedonia from.
Another 45 migrants from Syria, Bangladesh, Somalia, Pakistan and the Palestinian territory were found in an abandoned truck near the northern village of Vaksince, near the border with Serbia, late Wednesday.
Police said the truck driver fled the scene.
6 The Greek border with North Macedonia was closed earlier this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. But trafficking networks remain active, ferrying migrants who make their way from Turkey into Greece and then attempt to head north, through Serbia to more prosperous countries in the European Union.
Police said that in July alone they had detained a total of 567 migrants attempting to illegally transit North Macedonia and had arrested nine people, including three Serbian nationals, suspected of migrant trafficking. Published in Dawn, August 12, 2020
7 Global Disruption of Three Terror Finance Cyber-Enabled Campaigns
Largest Ever Seizure of Terrorist Organizations’ Cryptocurrency Accounts
HE Justice Department today announced the dismantling of three terrorist financing cyber enabled campaigns, involving the al Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, al Qaeda, and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS). This coordinated operation is detailed in three forfeiture complaints and a criminal complaint unsealed today in the District of Columbia. These actions represent the government’s largest ever seizure of cryptocurrency in the terrorism context.
These three terror finance campaigns all relied on sophisticated cyber tools, including the solicitation of cryptocurrency donations from around the world. The action demonstrates how different terrorist groups have similarly adapted their terror finance activities to the cyber age. Each group used cryptocurrency and social media to garner attention and raise funds for their terror campaigns. Pursuant to judicially authorized warrants, U.S. authorities seized millions of dollars, over 300 cryptocurrency accounts, four websites, and four Facebook pages all related to the criminal enterprise.
Funds successfully forfeited with a connection to a state sponsor of terrorism may in whole or in part be directed to the United States Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund (http://www.usvsst.com/) after the conclusion of the case.
“It should not surprise anyone that our enemies use modern technology, social media platforms and cryptocurrency to facilitate their evil and violent agendas,” said Attorney General William P. Barr. “The Department of Justice will employ all available resources to protect the lives and safety of the American public from terrorist groups. We will prosecute their money laundering, terrorist financing and violent illegal activities wherever we find them. And, as announced today, we will seize the funds and the instrumentalities that provide a lifeline for their operations whenever possible. I want to thank the investigators from the Internal Revenue Service, Department of Homeland Security, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the prosecutors from the D.C. United States Attorney’s Office and National Security Division for their hard and innovative work in attacking the networks that allow these terrorists to recruit for and fund their dangerous actions.”
"Terrorist networks have adapted to technology, conducting complex financial transactions in the digital world, including through cryptocurrencies. IRS CI special agents in the DC cybercrimes unit work diligently to unravel these financial networks," said Secretary of the Treasury Steven T. Mnuchin. "Today's actions demonstrate our ongoing commitment to holding malign actors accountable for their crimes.”
8 “The Department of Homeland Security was born after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and, nearly 20 years later, we remain steadfast in executing our critical mission to safeguard the American people, our homeland, and our values,” said Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad F. Wolf. “Today’s announcement detailing these enforcement actions targeting foreign terrorist organizations is yet another example of the Department’s commitment to our mission. After launching investigations that identified suspected online payments being funneled to and in support of terrorist networks, Homeland Security Investigations skillfully leveraged their cyber, financial, and trade investigative expertise to disrupt and dismantle cyber criminal networks that sought to fund acts of terrorism against the United States and our allies. Together with our federal law enforcement partners, the Department will utilize every resource available to ensure that our Homeland is and remains secure.”
“These important cases reflect the resolve of the D.C. United States Attorney’s Office to target and dismantle these sophisticated cyber terrorism and money laundering actors across the globe,” stated Acting United States Attorney Michael R. Sherwin. “While these individuals believe they operate anonymously in the digital space, we have the skill and resolve to find, fix and prosecute these actors under the full extent of the law.”
“IRS CI’s ability to trace funds used by terrorist groups to their source and dismantle these radical group’s communication and financial networks directly prevents them from wreaking havoc throughout the world,” said Don Fort, Chief, IRS Criminal Investigation. “Today the world is a safer place.”
“As the primary law enforcement agency charged with defeating terrorism, the FBI will continue to combat illicit terrorist financing regardless of platform or method employed by our adversaries,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. "As demonstrated by this recent operation, the FBI remains committed to cutting off the financial lifeblood of these organizations that seek to harm Americans at home and abroad."
“Homeland Security Investigations continues to demonstrate their investigative expertise with these enforcement actions,” said ICE Deputy Director and Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Director Matthew T. Albence. “Together with law enforcement partners, HSI has utilized their unique authorities to bring to justice those cyber criminal networks who would do us harm.”
Al-Qassam Brigades Campaign
The first action involves the al Qassam Brigades and its online cryptocurrency fundraising efforts. In the beginning of 2019, the al Qassam Brigades posted a call on its social media page for bitcoin donations to fund its campaign of terror. The al Qassam Brigades then moved this request to its official websites, alqassam.net, alqassam.ps, and qassam.ps.
9
The al Qassam Brigades boasted that bitcoin donations were untraceable and would be used for violent causes. Their websites offered video instruction on how to anonymously make donations, in part by using unique bitcoin addresses generated for each individual donor.
However, such donations were not anonymous. Working together, IRS, HSI, and FBI agents tracked and seized all 150 cryptocurrency accounts that laundered funds to and from the al Qassam Brigades’ accounts. Simultaneously, law enforcement executed criminal search warrants relating to United States based subjects who donated to the terrorist campaign.
10 With judicial authorization, law enforcement seized the infrastructure of the al Qassam Brigades websites and subsequently covertly operated alqassam.net. During that covert operation, the website received funds from persons seeking to provide material support to the terrorist organization, however, they instead donated the funds bitcoin wallets controlled by the United States.
The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia also unsealed criminal charges for two Turkish individuals, Mehmet Akti and Hüsamettin Karata , who acted as related money launderers while operating an unlicensed money transmitting business.
Al-Qaeda Campaign
The second cyber enabled terror finance campaign involves a scheme by al Qaeda and affiliated terrorist groups, largely based out of Syria. As the forfeiture complaint details, these terrorist organizations operated a bitcoin money laundering network using Telegram channels and other social media platforms to solicit cryptocurrency donations to further their terrorist goals. In some instances, they purported to act as charities when, in fact, they were openly and explicitly soliciting funds for violent terrorist attacks. For example, one post from a charity sought donations to equip terrorists in Syria with weapons:
Undercover HSI agents communicated with the administrator of Reminder for Syria, a related charity that was seeking to finance terrorism via bitcoin donations. The administrator stated that he hoped for the destruction of the United States, discussed the price for funding surface to air missles, and warned about possible criminal consequences from carrying out a jihad in the United States.
Posts from another Syrian charity similarly explicitly referenced weapons and extremist activities:
11
Al Qaeda and the affiliated terrorist groups together created these posts and used complicated obfuscation techniques, uncovered by law enforcement, to layer their transactions so to conceal their actions. Today’s complaint seeks forfeiture of the 155 virtual currency assets tied to this terrorist campaign.
ISIS Campaign
The final complaint combines the Department’s initiatives of combatting COVID 19 related fraud with combatting terrorism financing. The complaint highlights a scheme by Murat Cakar, an ISIS facilitator who is responsible for managing select ISIS hacking operations, to sell fake personal protective equipment via FaceMaskCenter.com (displayed below)
12 The website claimed to sell FDA approved N95 respirator masks, when in fact the items were not FDA approved. Site administrators claimed to have near unlimited supplies of the masks, in spite of such items being officially designated as scarce. The site administrators offered to sell these items to customers across the globe, including a customer in the United States who sought to purchase N95 masks and other protective equipment for hospitals, nursing homes, and fire departments.
The unsealed forfeiture complaint seized Cakar’s website as well as four related Facebook pages used to facilitate the scheme. With this third action, the United States has averted the further victimization of those seeking COVID 19 protective gear, and disrupted the continued funding of ISIS.
The claims made in these three complaints are only allegations and do not constitute a determination of liability. The burden to prove forfeitability in a civil forfeiture proceeding is upon the government. Further, charges contained in criminal complaint are merely allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
IRS CI Cyber Crimes Unit (Washington, D.C.), HSI’s Philadelphia Office, and FBI’s Washington D.C., New York, and Los Angeles field offices are investigating the case. Assistant U.S Attorneys Jessi Camille Brooks and Zia M. Faruqui, and National Security Division Trial Attorneys Danielle Rosborough and Alexandra Hughes are litigating the case, with assistance from Paralegal Specialists Brian Rickers and Bria Cunningham, and Legal Assistant Jessica McCormick. Additional assistance has been provided by Chainalysis and Excygent.
Published in justice.gov on August 13, 2020
13 US seizes millions of dollars from Islamic State and Al-Qaeda's cryptocurrency accounts
Officials described it as the largest ever seizure of virtual currency funds related to terrorism
A website that allegedly helped to fund Islamic State was seized CREDIT: REUTERS
HE Justice Department says it has seized millions of dollars from cryptocurrency accounts that militant groups, including al Qaeda and the Islamic State, relied on to finance their organisations and violent plots.
Law enforcement officials said the groups used the accounts to solicit donations, including by trying to raise money from the sale of fraudulent personal protective equipment for the coronavirus pandemic.
Officials described it as the largest ever seizure of virtual currency funds related to terrorism. It is also part of a broader Justice Department goal of disrupting the financing of extremist organisations, including those designated as foreign terror groups.
14 Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin are favored for illicit transactions because they are perceived as hard to trace, and one of the groups singled out on Thursday explicitly encouraged donations by telling potential contributors that the money trail would be difficult for law enforcement to untangle, the department said.
The legal action, which included undercover law enforcement work and a forfeiture complaint filed in Washington's federal court, is meant to deprive the organisations of funds needed to buy weapons and develop fighters, Assistant Attorney General John Demers said in a conference call with reporters announcing the case.
Bitcoin is favoured by the groups because transactions can be difficult for law enforcement to trace CREDIT: REUTERS
"This action shows that law enforcement remains a step ahead of them," said Demers, the department's top national security official.
The department said it has confiscated about $2 million so far, in addition to more than 300 cryptocurrency accounts, four websites and four Facebook pages related to the schemes.
The seized funds are expected to be turned over to a fund for victims of terrorist attacks, officials said.
One prong of the U.S. investigation targeted the military wing of Hamas, known as the al Qassam Brigades, which last year began a public fundraising campaign through social media to solicit Bitcoin donations while reassuring potential donors that such contributions would be untraceable and used for violence, officials said. It also posted on websites instructions for how to anonymously make donations.
15 Law enforcement officials ultimately seized more than 150 cryptocurrency accounts that they say laundered funds to and from accounts operated by the al Qassam Brigades. Also Thursday, prosecutors unsealed criminal charges against two Turkish individuals accused of acting as money launderers related to the cryptocurrency.
"Without funding, you cannot have these operations conducted," said Michael Sherwin, the acting US attorney for the District of Columbia. "The focus here was a very proactive effort to target these organisations in a very wide scale manner."
The department also identified a scheme that officials say was shepherded by an Islamic State associate who officials say manages certain hacking operations for the group.
Prosecutors say the man, identified as Murat Cakar, registered a website in Turkey to sell face masks and other protective gear to help prevent Covid 19. The masks were produced by a Turkish company and not approved by the US Food and Drug Administration despite being advertised as such.
The Justice Department said it seized that site as well as four related pages used for the scheme and for Islamic State funding.
Another scheme by al Qaeda and affiliates sought to raise funds through Bitcoin for attacks even as the groups purported to act as charities, according to the court documents.
Last month, an undercover agent for Homeland Security Investigations, part of the Department of Homeland Security, messaged the administrator of one supposed charity seeking to make donations. The administrator replied that he hoped for the destruction of the United States, and shared a Bitcoin wallet address for the purpose of receiving funds.
"Bullets and bombs is all affordable, but the drone stuff, its very hard to unless u have like anti aircraft stuff which is like millions of dollars," the administrator wrote, according to court documents. "Here they shoot it with a ground to air missile ... its possible to hit them but hard. Or a 23mm machine gun. U know those big guns attached to a car."
The investigation involved officials from multiple agencies, including the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service and HSI. Published in telegraph.co.uk on August 14, 2020
16 ORDER FROM CHAOS Counterterrorism in a time of COVID
By Daniel L. Byman and Andrew Amunson
The global spread of COVID 19 is transforming politics, as are the wide ranging responses from governments and communities worldwide. The implications will endure well after the pandemic is behind us. Both jihadi linked terrorism and counterterrorism are likely to change as well. The pandemic, however, offers new opportunities for terrorists and poses distinct challenges for the governments that seek to combat them.
Budgets shrink, public health costs swell
The pandemic has triggered the deepest global recession in eight decades and the global economy is expected to lose $8.5 trillion in output over the next two years. The economic fallout will be especially devastating to countries in the developing world and those dependent on oil revenue — characteristics of many Western counterterrorism partners in Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. Developing economies are already saddled with fiscal deficits and high levels of public debt, while oil producing states have suffered a collapse of oil demand and prices.
Public health spending will almost certainly take up a larger portion of shrinking budgets among Western nations and regional counterterrorism partners. The direct medical costs of treating patients infected with COVID 19, as well as the costs associated with preventing its spread and distributing a vaccine, will probably reach hundreds of billions of dollars. Overall
17 counterterrorism budgets may decline as a result, and drive a reduction in European and other allied assistance to local partners, many of whom are dependent on Western support for funds, training, and weapons to pursue terrorist groups operating inside their countries. Face to face military training is already declining as fears of COVID 19 limit interactions. A loss or drastic reduction in foreign support would erode those local allies’ counterterrorism capabilities and could allow terrorists to expand their operations and influence. An even bigger risk, as a recent U.N. report notes, may be the distraction of security forces, which might need to support a COVID 19 response or manage any unrest associated with the crisis.
Policy focus shifts
The public health and economic crises will also likely reorder national security priorities. That may accelerate existing trends identified by the Department of Defense away from jihadi focused counterterrorism and quicken an overall desire to reduce commitments in the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa, where ISIS and al Qaida and their affiliates have been traditionally most active. Along with reduced spending on foreign assistance, fewer demands and less attention from senior U.S. and Western leaders may mean partners in the developing world focus on other issues. The regionalization of many jihadi groups compounds this challenge. Reduced Western attention to managing counterterrorism coordination, compounded by reduced foreign aid, would greatly increase the need for local partners to manage regional multilateral cooperation, which has often been strained, if not absent, due to suspicion and regional rivalry.
The terrorist threat is likely to morph in both the short and long term. Well before the pandemic, the jihadi terrorist threat was localizing, with the energy — and much of the violence — concentrated in the Middle East, East and West Africa, and other parts of the world where groups like ISIS and al Qaida had local affiliates or otherwise focused on the immediate conflict rather than spectacular international terrorist attacks. COVID 19 is likely to make this localization more pronounced. Terrorists, like everyone else, face both overall restrictions on travel and greater border security in the United States and in other countries. This makes action at home relatively easier and accelerates the pre existing trend toward homegrown attacks.
Local allies under pressure
Making the threat more dangerous, at the local level at least, is that governments will be both over stretched and discredited in many countries where terrorist groups are operating. In much of the Middle East and Africa, governments are weak and dysfunctional, and the pandemic has brought this to the fore. Many report low numbers of cases simply because they are not collecting data at all, even as the virus runs amok. Government resources are likely to focus on the pandemic and on quelling any unrest that stems from the poor government response. In the long term, the poor response to the pandemic will be another strike against these regimes, further delegitimizing them and bolstering militants’ claim that the governments should be overthrown. The contrast between good and bad governance, so clear with COVID 19, will also exacerbate the terrorism threat for those who fall short. Terrorist groups like al Qaida and ISIS are attempting to take
18 advantage of this weak governance to expand their operations. In addition, in some areas a group may try to provide services and, in so doing, bolster its own credibility as an alternative.
Another risk is more insidious: that governments will use the threat of terrorism to increase their efforts to crack down on legitimate dissent. This has long been the case in China, where the government played up a real but small threat of Uighur terrorism, using it as justification for a crackdown on millions of Chinese Muslims, including comprehensive surveillance and detention camps. China is trying to suppress the democratic movement in Hong Kong, using COVID 19 as a pretext.
Terrorists face new burdens
The pandemic is also likely to disrupt terrorist group operations and fundraising. In part, this is due to travel restrictions. In addition, however, terrorists compete for recruits and resources with other causes. As world and local attention focuses on the pandemic, the ability of terrorist groups to publicize their causes is crowded out — the world is not more for them or more against them, it is simply ignoring them.
The shift online, which is particularly pronounced in the white supremacist world, is likely to grow as a result of the pandemic. Stuck at home, it is harder to get to a training camp or a conflict zone, but people have more time to spend in virtual cesspools where extremism dwells. So far, judging by the decline in flows of foreign fighters, terrorists have had little success exploiting the coronavirus in their propaganda, but they in general are good at exploiting conspiracy theories and otherwise taking advantage of dangerous and misguided ideas that others promulgate.
Silver linings for counterterrorism?
The challenges that COVID 19 poses for counterterrorism in the coming years are evident, if not entirely unique — yet some opportunities may also exist. For instance, information sharing and policy coordination among states on public health issues to help stem the pandemic may create more information, new means of sharing, and facilitate intra and intergovernmental cooperation among regional and Western countries that could bolster counterterrorism efforts by improving travel monitoring and border control, for example. More broadly, the potential reduction in resources available for counterterrorism and shifting priorities will probably require reevaluating the efficacy and sustainability of various counterterrorism efforts, ranging from the use of military force to security related foreign aid. Necessity may help drive regional cooperation and the development of sustainable, locally developed approaches to counterterrorism that are less dependent on the technical capabilities and sophisticated weapons systems provided by Western states.
Published in Brookings.edu on August 20, 2020
19 Policing a pandemic
By Mohammad Ali Babakhel
HE outbreak of the pandemic has assigned a new role to Pakistan’s police. Besides crime prevention, detection and counterterrorism, police are now also expected to work in public health. In a country where the police are trained on colonial traditions, reactive to situations, strapped for resources and policing is considered a non development affair, can it transform into a true public service?
Historically, public health remained exclu ded from policing in Pakistan. However, anti polio and dengue campaigns established inf or mal institutional linkages between health and police departments. The Epidemic Dise ases Act (EDA), 1958, was an outdated law pri marily based on the 1897 act. Prevention of infectious diseases was included in the Con stitution’s Concurrent List, which was abolished in 2010. Sindh adopted the EDA in 2014. To control the spread of Covid 19, in May 2020, the act was amended and the fine inc reased from Rs3,000 to maximum Rs1 million.
In KP, the Public Health (Surveillance and Response) Act was passed in 2017. It mandates an 18 member committee that lacks police representation. The committee is empowered to declare a health emergency but, realistically, except for police, no department has the enforcement capacity to deal with this. Reporting of health hazards is made mandatory, but such obligations need public empowerment. And though the law guarantees “the highest standards of human respect, dignity and privacy”, owing to the weak capacity of its enforcers, such ideals are often compromised.
To deal with Covid 19, KP promulgated an ordinance detailing restrictions on people and establishments, procedures to deal with a potentially infectious person (PIP), and trying violators summarily. It also covers issues re lated to education institutions, tenants/lan d lords, handling and burial of the deceased, and dealing with quarantine runaways.
Meanwhile, Punjab promulgated an ordinance, repealing the EDA, 1958. The law makes it binding upon individuals to share information with certified doctors regarding a PIP.
Common violations are failing to maintain social distancing and wear masks at places of worship, businesses, and public transport. In Pakistan, 9,532 violations of health guidelines were reported in a single day: 4,479 in KP; 2,445 in Punjab; 1,000 in Sindh; 818 in Bal ochistan; 585 in AJK; 156 in GB; and 49 in ICT.
For police, dealing with the homeless and refugees during lockdown is a daunting task. Increasing criminalisation during a pandemic did not prove effective. Globally, social distancing laws have failed to achieve results. Effective communication strategies by LEAs, volunteerism and community consent may yield more dividends. It is also important to recognise that
20 privileged classes can observe social distancing more easily than others, and that the pandemic has exacerbated existing inequalities and compounded law enforcement.
In dealing with violations, imprisonment increases the risk of the virus spreading in overcrowded prisons, and heavy fines are also not viable given current economic constraints. Better then to focus on public education, using the four ‘e’s approach: engage people, explain the law and its rationale, encourage compliance, and enforce only as a last resort.
We have to strive for a balance between the right to life and right to movement. In developed countries, there is public debate on the impact of increased police powers on human liberties. In Canada, for example, the Policing the Pandemic Mapping Project found that these enhanced powers were hurting, not helping, the public. In Pakistan, owing to dysfunctional public safety commissions, such scrutiny is lacking.
During emergencies, weak police community links and dysfunctional local governments make maintaining order even more difficult. Emergency laws made without thorough deliberation, weak professional capacity, lack of additional funds and little public ownership further hinder enforcement.
The Covid 19 crisis has highlighted the im p ortance of community policing. Police must adopt both inward and outward strategies. Given the lack of understanding of public health issues, police primarily focus on an outward strategy, thus policing without protective gear and procedures. Such a grave sit u a tion warrants that in dealing with arr ests, investigation, accidents, protests, handling dead bodies and funerals, SOPs are drafted and implemented as per WHO guidelines. Public health approaches need to be included in the police training curriculum, and provincial governments need to allocate non lapsable funds to police departments. After the pan demic, the efficacy of such laws should be reviewed and issues arising out of its implementation studied. It is an opportunity to think about how to shift from a punitive, reactive form of policing to enforcement with consent.
Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2020
21 World virus deaths top 800,000 as nations ramp up measures
Relatives of a person who died from coronavirus arrive at a cemetery in Bergamo, Italy – Reuters/File
ARIS: The global death toll from coronavirus has surpassed 800,000, with numerous countries ramping up restrictions in an effort to battle an eruption of new cases. Western Europe, particularly Spain, Italy Germany and France, has been enduring infection levels not seen in many months, sparking fears of a fully fledged second wave.
And in Asia, South Korea, which had largely brought the virus under control, became the latest country to announce it would boost restrictions to try to stem a new outbreak.
According to an AFP count on Saturday, the number of worldwide deaths has doubled to just over 800,000 since June 6, with 100,000 fatalities in the last 17 days alone, while more than 23 million cases have been registered.
Latin America is the region the most affected, while more than half the global fatalities have been reported in the hardest hit United States, Brazil, Mexico and India.
The surging numbers come after the UN health agency said on Friday that the world should be able to rein in the pandemic in less than two years.
22
World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus sought to draw favourable comparisons with the flu pandemic of 1918 which cost the lives of as many as 50 million people.
“We have a disadvantage of globalisation, closeness, connectedness, but an advantage of better technology, so we hope to finish this pandemic before less than two years,” he said.
“(By) utilising the available tools to the maximum and hoping that we can have additional tools like vaccines, I think we can finish it in a shorter time than the 1918 flu.” The WHO also recommended children over 12 years old now use masks in the same situations as adults as the use of face coverings increases to stop the virus spread.
‘Very precarious stage’
With no usable vaccine yet available, the most prominent tool governments have at their disposal is to confine their populations or enforce social distancing.
South Korea announced ramped up restrictions on Saturday, after 332 new cases were reported in the past 24 hours — the highest daily figure since early March.
“We are at a very precarious stage where we could see the beginning of a nationwide second wave,” Health Minister Park Neung hoo said at a press briefing.
The expanded measures include restrictions on gatherings and activities, including professional sports, which will be played behind closed doors again, while beaches nationwide will close.
23 ‘Don’t feel invincible’
Italy — once the European epicentre of the virus — said on Saturday it had registered more than 1,000 new infections in the past 24 hours, the highest level since the end of a punishing lockdown in May.
The story is similar across Spain, Germany and France.
The Rome region also said it had recorded a record number of cases in the past 24 hours, a rise health officials blamed on people returning from holiday.
Most of those infected are young people who are not showing symptoms, the Italian capital’s health official Alessio D’Amato said, warning them to stay at home.
“Don’t feel invincible,” he urged them.
In Germany, a university launched a series of pop concerts under coronavirus conditions, hoping the mass experiment with 2,000 people can determine whether large events can safely resume.
‘Coronavirus catastrophe?’
Elsewhere, Lebanon launched two weeks of measures on Friday, including nighttime curfews, as the country is still dealing with the fallout from a huge explosion in Beirut that killed scores of people.
“What now? On top of this disaster, a coronavirus catastrophe?” said 55 year old Roxane Moukarzel.
Officials fear Lebanon’s fragile health system would struggle to cope with a further spike in Covid 19 cases, especially after some hospitals near the port were damaged in the explosion.
Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2020
24 Another militant organisation banned
By Iftikhar A. Khan
The process of maintaining a list of proscribed organisations started on Aug 14, 2001 when Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Sipah-i-Mohammad Pakistan were outlawed. – AFP/File
SLAMABAD : The government has banned another militant outfit taking the number of outlawed organisations to 77. The fresh addition to the list is Khatam Ul Ambia, said to be an offshoot of Ansarul Hussain which was banned in the late 2016 for its alleged involvement in recruiting the youth from the Shia community to fight the militant Islamic State (IS) group commonly known as Daesh.
The process of maintaining a list of proscribed organisations started on Aug 14, 2001 when Lashkar e Jhangvi and Sipah i Mohammad Pakistan were outlawed. Later, on Jan 14, 2002, the government banned Jaish e Mohammad, Lashkar e Taiba, Sipah i Sahaba Pakistan, Tehreek i Islami and Tehreek i Nifaz Shariat i Mohammadi.
Tehreek i Jafria Pakistan was put on the list on Jan 28, 2002, followed by Al Qaeda on March 17, 2003, Millat i Islamia Pakistan and Khuddamul Islam on Nov 15, 2003 and Islami Tehreek Pakistan on Nov 15, 2003.
Three more organisations — Jamiatul Ansar, Jamiatul Furqan and Hizbut Tehrir — were banned on Nov 20, 2003 while Khair un Naas International Trust was proscribed on Oct 27, 2004.
25 The Balochistan Liberation Army was placed on the list on April 7, 2006, and Islamic Students Movement of Pakistan on Aug 21, 2006.
Lashkar i Islam, Ansarul Islam and Haji Namdar Group were banned on June 30, 2008 and Tehreek i Taliban Pakistan was outlawed on Aug 25, 2008.
Five militant organisations from Balochistan — Balochistan Republican Army, Balochistan Liberation Front, Lashkar i Balochistan, Balochistan Liberation United Front and Balochistan Musallah Difa Tanzeem — were put on the list on Sept 8, 2010.
Three organisations from Gilgit — Shia Tulaba Action Committee, Markaz Sabeel Organisation and Tanzeem Naujawanan i Ahle Sunnat — and Peoples Aman Committee (Lyari), Karachi, were placed on the list on Oct 10, 2011.
The Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, a reincarnation of Sipah i Sahaba Pakistan, was banned on Feb 15, 2012, followed by Al Harmain Foundation and Rabita Trust on March 6, 2012 and Anjuman i Imamia and Muslim Students Organisation (both from Gilgit Baltistan) on April 24, 2012.
Tanzeem Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (Gilgit Baltistan) was placed on the list on June 5, 2012 while Balochistan Bunyad Parast Army, Tehreek Nafaz i Aman, Tahaffuz Hadudullah, Balochistan Waja Liberation Army, Islam Mujahideen, Jaish i Islam and Balochistan National Liberation Army were banned on Aug 4, 2012.
The list was widely expanded in 2013 with the addition of the Khana i Hikmat Gilgit Baltistan on March 13 and Tehreek i Taliban Swat, Tehreek i Taliban Mohmand, Tariq Jeedar Group, Abdullah Azam Brigade, East Turkmenistan Islamic Movement, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Islamic Jihad Union, 313 Brigade, Tehreek i Taliban Bajaur, Amar Bil Maroof Wa Nahi Anil Munkir (Haji Namdar Group), Baloch Student Organisation Azad, United Baloch Army and Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz on March 15, 2013.
Since then, the list remained unchanged till July 15, 2015, when the name of Daesh (the Arabic acronym for the militant Islamic State group) was placed on the list of banned organisations.
Jamaat ul Ahrar and Lashkar e Jhangvi Al Alami were added to the list on Nov 11, 2016, followed by Ansarul Hussain on Dec 30, 2016.
Tehreek i Azadi Jammu and Kashmir was the only addition made to the list on June 8, 2017. Jundullah was the last addition made by the then Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz government in 2018.
The first addition to the list by the Pakistan Tehreek i Insaf government was made on Dec 13, 2018, when Yemen based Al Rahmah Welfare Trust Organisation was outlawed.
The Balwaristan National Front (Abdul Hameed Khan Group) was the first organisation to have been proscribed on Feb 26, 2019.
The decision to ban Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) and Falah i Insaniyat Foundation (FIF) was taken at a meeting of the National Security Committee, headed by the prime minister and comprising key
26 cabinet members and military leaders, on Feb 21 last year, and a notification to that effect was issued by the interior ministry on March 5, 2019.
After a gap of over two months seven JuD and two FIF affiliates were also included in the list.
Pak Turk International CAG Education Foundation was banned on April 18, 2019.
Hizbul Ahrar and Balochistan Raaji Ajooi Sangar were added to the list of terrorist outfits on July 26,2019.
Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz Aresar Group, Sindhu Desh Revolution Army and Sindhu Desh Liberation Army were added to the list this year These three one nationalist and two separatist organisations were banned on May 7, 2020.
Ghulaman i Sahaba and Maymar Trust continue to be on a watch list since May 30, 2017 and March 29, 2017, respectively.
Sachal Sarmast Welfare Trust Karachi and Al Jaza Patient Welfare Organisation were added to the watch list in June last year.
Al Akhtar Trust and Al Rasheed Trust have been on the list under the UN Security Council resolution No 1267 since December 2005. Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2020
27 Banning groups
HERE is no shortage of banned militant groups in Pakistan, and with the proscription of a heretofore largely unknown outfit called Khatam ul Ambia by the state, the grand total of such organisations comes to 77. According to the government, the aforementioned group is an offshoot of Ansarul Hussain, a Shia set up reportedly formed to recruit fighters against the militant Islamic State group. Ansarul Hussain was itself proscribed in 2016, which illustrates the problem with the state’s approach to dealing with armed groups: the list of banned outfits grew largely because while the authorities have proscribed groups and detained or kept a watch on some of their prominent figures, it could do more to dismantle the structure that allows such groups to thrive. This has largely been the pattern ever since the first noticeable efforts against armed groups in the country were made during the Musharraf era.
Of course, the foundations for the infrastructure of militancy in Pakistan were laid during the Zia era, when anti Soviet jihadi groups were patronised by the state, and supported by the US and the Saudis to do the needful in Afghanistan. A concomitant development during this period was the rise of anti Shia hate groups such as Sipah i Sahaba Pakistan and its even deadlier offshoot, Lashkar i Jhangvi, which transformed into this country’s most feared sectarian death squad. This unsavoury situation gave rise to Shia vigilante groups, such as Sipah i Mohammad, and the 1990s and 2000s saw armed sectarian and jihadi groups multiply manifold, at one time posing a serious challenge to the writ of the state. Today, the list of banned groups is more varied, as it also features Baloch and Sindhi separatist outfits. While the changed geopolitical situation in the aftermath of 9/11 made Pervez Musharraf take action against some violent outfits, the general failed to take measures to totally uproot these groups. That is why banned groups remained active, mostly by changing names. As has been frequently stressed in these columns, action against violent actors needs to be holistic. Leaders and cadres of terrorist outfits need to be tried and convicted in court, while their financial and other assets must be seized to cut off sources of funding. While action has been taken to meet FATF requirements, and measures against militancy have weakened terrorist structures, stepping up its pace in this direction would be very much in Pakistan’s own interest.
Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2020
28 War on Terror: Causes, Course, Costs and Consequences Part 1
By Shahid Hussain Raja
“This crusade – this war on terrorism – is going to take a while” George Bush
Abstract
Though it was the worst intelligence failure of any intelligence agency in history, the USA took maximum advantage of 9/11 tragedy and embarked on the mission to accomplish the objectives set forth in the infamous neo con paper, known as the American Century. Calling it as War on Terror, America employed all its military, diplomatic and financial, to wage a war of terror on several countries besides Afghanistan its starting point.
Whether it was a stellar success as its proponents wants us to believe or a dismal failure as its opponents claim, is a debatable point but it has cost the world massively in terms of loss of human lives, financial losses, refugees crises, missed opportunities and surprisingly, increased global terrorism. What were the causes of the failure of War on Terror, what costs it imposed to those on the receiving end and what are its long term consequences, are some of the issues touched in this two part article
Background
Started in the aftermath of 9/11 terrorist attacks inside the USA, the War on Terror is a generic name of the global military, political, legal, and conceptual struggle against both terrorist organizations and against the regimes accused of supporting them. It officially finished the day Osama was declared killed on 2nd May 2011 although Barrack Obama announced its official termination in 2013 and directed the American security establishment to focus on specific enemies as a series of persistent, targeted efforts to dismantle specific networks of violent extremists that threaten America.
Aims and Objectives of War on Terror
According to official American version, War on Terror was launched to dismantle the terrorist network of Al Qaida after they carried out a series of terrorist acts against US interests outside USA and finally on 9/11 inside USA. As they had crossed the red line, so their elimination was the basic objective to obviate the possibility of such attacks in future.The Bush administration defined the following objectives in the War on Terror
1. Identify, locate, defeat and demolish terrorists along with their organizations
29 2. Deny sponsorship, support and sanctuary to terrorists
3. Strengthen and sustain the international effort to combat terrorism by force or by capacity building of states facing terrorism and diminish the underlying conditions that terrorists seek to exploit
4. Enhance measures to ensure the integrity, reliability, and availability of critical, physical, and information based infrastructures at home and abroad
Views on War on Terror
There are three views on War on Terror namely American state version, Opponents’ views and the skeptics’ reservations. While the official US version has been explained above, the opponents of the War on Terror believe that the 9/11 was just a hoax; or if did happen, then, it was an inside job conducted by the CIA and Mossad to establish some casus belli for implementing the Neo Con agenda explained in their American Century Project to re assert the American hegemony etc
On the other hand, sceptics maintain that the 9/11 may or may not be an inside job but the military industrial complex used it brilliantly to advance their agenda of self aggrandisement and earn abnormal profits
Dimensions of the War on Terror
The war on terrorism was an open ended multidimensional campaign with military and diplomatic dimensions working in tandem domestically as well as globally.
1. Military Dimension: Its military dimension started with invasion of Afghanistan but expanded to Iraq and covert operations in Libya, Syria and Yemen. Now, the Costs of War Project identifies no less than 76 countries, 39% of those on the planet, as involved in that global conflict where U.S. drone or other air strikes are the norm and U.S. ground troops have been either directly or indirectly engaged in combat.
2. Diplomatic Dimension: In diplomatic field, it resulted in augmenting old alliances in the Middle East while expanding its military spending, intelligence capabilities and criminal outreach ordering illegal detention, capturing and killing of those perceived to be enemies of USA, expanded cooperation with foreign intelligence agencies, and the tracking and interception of terrorist financing. It also included continuing efforts to construct and maintain a global coalition of partner states and organizations and an extensive
3. Domestic Dimension: The domestic dimension of the U.S. war on terrorism entailed new anti terrorism legislation, new security institutions, the preventive detainment of thousands of suspects; surveillance and intelligence gathering programs, the strengthening of emergency response procedures; and increased security measures for airports, borders, and public events
30 War on Terror; Stellar Success or Dismal Failure?
Answer to question whether the global war on terror launched by the USA after 9/11 succeeded in achieving its stated objectives depends upon the perspective one has in mind. To the enthusiasts, it was a stellar success in ensuring security of the mainland USA by not only dislodging the Taliban government which was accused of harbouring the terrorists, particularly Osama bin Laden but also dismantled Al Qaida and uprooted their safe havens. It resulted in the arrest of hundreds of terrorist suspects around the world, the prevention of further large scale terrorist attacks on the American mainland, and increased levels of international cooperation in global counter terrorism efforts. Its final crowning success came when the USA killed its master mind, Osama bin Laden on 2nd May 2011 in a remotely located house in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
Of course, USA has lost around 2500 soldiers and got more than 20,000 wounded in pursuit of this objective notwithstanding the trillions of dollars spent. Yet these losses are worth the aim for which this war was launched. USA is now safe from any 9/11 style attacks. However, what are the costs borne by the people of Afghanistan, Pakistan and other countries for keeping America safe cannot be adequately estimated. Never. Similarly, what will be the consequences, short terms as well long term, of this war on terrorism will be only an educated guess.
Forget the collateral damage in the form of great human misery of non American nations i.e., millions of people killed/wounded or made homeless, property worth trillions of dollars destroyed, economies of several developing countries totally ruined. Arrival of hundreds and thousands of refugees in Europe has its own long term socioeconomic implications for NATO allies. For a country which has been responsible for causing more than 20 million deaths since second world war, it is immaterial.
However, to its opponents and critics, all the successes claimed so far in the War on Terror are of tactical nature and not of much significance in strategic sense. To them, there are no signs of any clear US victory in this War on Terror; rather the USA is seen to be fighting an endless war, creating more terrorists than it has killed so far. To them the costs incurred in terms of human losses, financial burden and infrastructural damage outweigh the gains the USA claims in its War on Terror. Similarly, they argue, the unintended consequences of the War on Terror are far more than the goals intended and achieved. More of these later in the final part of this essay
Causes of American Failure in WOT
There are several reasons for American failure to achieve its stated objectives and ensuring long term global peace 1. Nature of War
USA failed to correctly determine the nature of war it was going to launch against the global terrorism and hence there was ambiguity in formulating the objectives of the war and the attendant strategy to achieve them. It erred in equating a counter terrorism/insurgency war with fighting a conventional war. They should have learned lessons from their past two dismal failures in Vietnam and Lebanon as well as from Soviet Union’s Afghan fiasco that fighting
31 against organised state run forces obeying, at least literally, the rules of Geneva Convention is diametrically opposed to fighting against multiple terrorist organisation, each backed by different hostile states and carrying out acts of terrorism with impunity. The advantages these organisations enjoy in terms of terrain, tactics, logistics and public support demand different type of strategies to achieve your end goals. Gung-ho Operation
Secondly, although the stated public aims of the War on Terror were to dismantle al Qaeda, and to deny it a safe base of operations in Afghanistan by removing the Taliban from power, the Operation Enduring Freedom itself was a gung ho operation, carried out without any proper planning and effective strategy to cope with the situation once the initial objectives were achieved. As such, it was doomed to fail. Once the Taliban had been ousted and al Qaeda had been degraded, America should have tried to establish a broad based government and left with strong intelligence presence to keep an eye on the re emergence of Al Qaida. Rather it started an ambitious project of state building and even nation building objectives which need decades if not centuries. Unfortunately, Americans are still not clear what they want from this war which has just entered in its 16th year. Half- hearted Attempts
Thirdly, if the objectives were ambitious then USA should have allocated much larger resources and should have continued with it till these were achieved. Keeping in view peculiar conditions of Afghanistan with its diverse ethnic composition, mountainous terrain, inadequate infrastructure and institutional backwardness, far more troops and finances were required. Troop levels in Afghanistan never approached that level. Instead, those battle hardened troops were sent to Iraq in 2003 where another similar gung ho operation was launched, allowing the Taliban to re emerge in the vacuum this created. Post-operation Blunders
Fourthly, invading a foreign country like Afghanistan which is sparsely populated, mountainous and bleak is one thing; maintaining your occupation for long is impossible. After the fall of Taliban government, USA installed a government which was overwhelmingly non Pashtun. Passionate appeals by Pakistan to accommodate the moderate Pashtun Taliban who were on the run and amenable to negotiated peace were not heeded. By banishing all the Pashtuns from every decision making apparatus of the state machinery, it not only created a legitimacy crisis for the new government, it also dis empowered 60% of population in one go in the new socio political set up. Currently, it is the Northern Alliance which is calling the shots in the national government. Three fourth of the Afghan security forces are non Pashtuns. Inefficient and Corrupt Government
Fifthly, despite massive military and financial aid by the NATO forces, the Afghan government could not deliver in terms of security or delivery of basic services. Rampant corruption has made the situation even worse. According to a 2009 DFID survey, “Most ordinary people associate the [national] government with practices and behaviour they dislike: the inability to provide security,
32 dependence on foreign military, eradication of a basic livelihood crop (poppy), and as having a history of partisanship (the perceived preferential treatment of Northerners).” Read the 2016 report issued by the Special Inspector General for Afghan Relief (SIGAR) showing how mass corruption, bribery, payoffs and drug money had fatally undermined US efforts to build a viable Afghan society. Public Support for Taliban
Sixthly, errors of omission and commission on the part of NATO forces in Afghanistan in general and the Afghan government in particular have effectively pushed the majority of Pashtuns towards the Taliban who needed the space and sympathy of the people to carry out their mission. Survey after survey has suggested that majority of Pashtun people are supporting the Taliban not only out of fear but also for being more trustworthy as compared to the present regime. Pashtuns consider Taliban movement as an indigenous liberation movement without any affiliation with the Al Qaida or global Jihad. They consider it as a continuation of their centuries old war against foreign invasion or occupation whether British or Soviet or American. The proverbial bravery and tenacity of the Pashtun tribes through their wars of attrition ultimately saps the morale and drains the finances of the occupying power. Same is happening with the USA. Active Support of Russia
After realising that defeat was imminent in Vietnam, Americans started to destabilise Afghanistan to take revenge from Soviet Union for this humiliation. By 1973, CIA had recruited more than 5000 fighters from all over the Islamic world and started infiltrating Afghanistan. Americans were ultimately successful and USSR had no option but to come to the aid of its ally in Kabul. The rest is history.
Now it is Russia’s turn to avenge their defeat. That is why Russia welcomed American attack on Afghanistan, knowing fully well what was in store for the Americans in the long run. They had learnt the lesson the hard way it is easy to fall in love or enter a war; bloody difficult, almost impossible to extricate yourself with some modicum of respect left. And that is why they are giving maximum support to the Taliban, particularly in the form of military equipment and has ensured that the USA remained bogged down in this quagmire as long as possible. Active Support of Iran
Initially Iran was deadly against the Taliban for the atrocities committed by them against the 20% of Shia population of Afghanistan and actively supported USA in their operations. Once Taliban were cut to size, Iran is now actively supporting these very Taleban for its own geopolitical objectives. Active Support of Pakistan
The Taliban have been using Pakistan’s space for multiple purposes recruiting volunteers, collecting finances, taking refuges etc. No doubt Pakistan has been vehemently rejecting the allegations that it has been actively supporting the Taliban, rather using them as its proxy to counter the increasing Indian influence. Pakistan maintains that it has very marginal and mostly
33 moral influence over Taliban. However, the fact is that official borders between Pakistan and Afghanistan where the Taliban take refuge, is a NO man’s Land. No army in the world can succeed against a group which takes refuge in such terrain. In fact, the biggest handicap Pakistan government is facing is the fear of the blow back of any action in the form of increased terrorist activities inside the country by the Taliban themselves or their supporters who are in millions living in Pakistan 1. American Announcement to Withdraw
Ironically, by announcing its withdrawal from Afghanistan quagmire by 2014, USA repeated the same mistake which USSR made in case of its ally Najibullah in September 1991. Boris Yeltsin, determined to cut back on the country’s international commitments, announced that from 1 January 1992, no more arms, petrol and food supplies would be delivered to Kabul. This announcement was catastrophic for the morale of Najibullah and his supporters, who had otherwise survived for more than two years and could have gone for much longer.,
Similarly, the above mentioned announcement by Obama and later on an invitation to Taliban for negotiations for their possible induction as partners in the government was enough to keep up the morale of the Taliban who might have yielded to Pakistan’s pressure for negotiated settlement with Afghan government.
34 Govt plans another joint sitting of parliament for FATF bills passage
By Amir Wasim
Awan said that so far no date had been finalized for the joint sitting-APP/File
SLAMABAD: After the rejection of two FATF related bills by the opposition dominated Senate, the government is now planning to convene another joint sitting of parliament next week to get the crucial legislation passed, Dawn has learnt.
Adviser to the Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan on Friday talked to National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser over phone to discuss the agenda for the upcoming joint sitting in order to ensure the smooth passage of the bills required to be passed to fulfil conditions of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to bring the country out of the grey list of the countries in terms of terror financing.
After the passage of the 18th Constitution Amendment, if a bill passed by one house of parliament is rejected by the other house, it can only become a law after its passage from a combined sitting of the two houses.
35 When contacted, Mr Awan said that so far no date had been finalised for the joint sitting. He said that he planned to have a joint meeting with the NA speaker and Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani to finalise the date and agenda for the joint session.
In reply to a question, he said the government was ready to talk to the opposition, but no compromise would be made on the issues of national security and accountability. He alleged that the opposition was only interested in putting “a lock at the gate of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB)”.
The 104 member Senate had on Aug 25 rejected through a voice vote the Anti Money Laundering (Second Amendment) Bill and the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Waqf Properties Bill that had already been passed by the National Assembly only the previous day after the opposition objected to some of the provisions of the laws and linked its cooperation to retraction of the remarks made by Leader of the House Dr Shahzad Waseem about their leadership.
Responding to the opposition’s insistence on withdrawal of his remarks on Tuesday, Mr Waseem said he had not named anybody.
Some opposition members, however, said he did name Shahbaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari.
The opposition members had also sought an apology from him, whereas the government side accused the opposition of trying to blackmail it.
A day after the rejection of the two bills, the opposition questioned the legality of the entire proceedings leading to the voting process and said the bills could not be sent to the joint sitting of parliament.
While the opposition controverted the discretionary powers exercised by the Senate chairman to allow the motion seeking permission to take the bills for consideration, Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani ruled that the proceedings were in accordance with the rules of business.
The opposition has a thin majority of just nine votes in the joint sitting of parliament, but the government is hopeful of getting the two bills passed from it.
The opposition’s attitude in the Senate drew an immediate and strong reaction from Prime Minister Imran Khan who wrote a series of tweets to attack the opposition parties after the rejection of the bills, stating that “from day one, I have maintained that the self serving interests of the opposition leaders and the country’s interests are divergent”.
Mr Khan stated that the opposition leaders had become desperate to save their corrupt money by trying to prevent parliament from functioning “by seeking to undermine government’s effective Covid 19 strategy — a recognised global success story — and now by trying to sabotage Pakistan’s efforts to exit FATF grey list”.
The prime minister further said that the opposition tried to hide behind facade of democracy to protect their loot and plunder.
“To blackmail for NRO by defanging NAB, they would even have Pak put on FATF black list to destroy nation’s economy & increase poverty. They keep threatening to bring down govt unless
36 given NRO,” he had said, adding that “no matter what happens, my government will not allow any NRO as it would be betrayal of nation’s trust in holding plunderers of public wealth accountable”.
Soon after the prime minister’s tweets, both the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML N) defended their act of opposing the bills.
PPP’s Sherry Rehman, while replying to the PM’s remarks, also through tweets, said they had opposed the bills as powers to arrest without warrants were being given to the police and investigators, adding that “this is neither required by FATF nor is it defensible in any even the most illiberal democracy”.
“These laws are being pushed as draconian laws,” she said. Moreover, she added, the FATF was being used “to expand the scope of NAB to witch hunt the opposition”.
PML N’s Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had also declared the proposed bills as “black laws” and in violation of the fundamental rights of the citizens.
The government had previously convened joint sittings of parliament on Aug 6 and Aug 20. Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2020
37